CBC's Ideas

The back of our five dollar bill shows kids playing shinny on a timeless pond somewhere in Canada. But Calgary writer Bruce Dowbiggin argues that hockey is far more than simple nostalgia or big business. It's a clear window into the complexity of modern Canada: from shifting political power and economics, to multiculturalism and what we think it means to be a Canadian in the 21st century.

Eleanor Wachtel speaks with 37-year-old Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the most successful conductor in Canadian history, who has just been made a Companion of the Order of Canada and recently took over the venerable Philadelphia Orchestra.

Recent recipient of the Friesen Prize in Health Science Research, Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne identified important mechanisms for the formation of the normal human brain, which ultimately opened new frontiers in the world of neuro-degeneration, and spinal chord injuries. He talks with Paul Kennedy.

The back of our five dollar bill shows kids playing shinny on a timeless pond somewhere in Canada. But Calgary writer Bruce Dowbiggin argues that hockey is far more than simple nostalgia or big business. It's a clear window into the complexity of modern Canada: from shifting political power and economics, to multiculturalism and what we think it means to be a Canadian in the 21st century.

In 1905, George MacMartin, Treaty Commissioner for Ontario, accompanied by federal commissioners and native guides, journeyed through rapids and hiked through the wilds to meet with First Nations leaders. The result was James Bay Treaty Nine. The treaty put northern Ontario into Canadian hands, but First Nations' tradition is clear: their leaders agreed to share the land, not give it away. Christopher Moore, historian and winner of a 2011 Governor General's Literary Award, explores what the diary by George MacMartin reveals, and what it means today.